DKI Health Office Affirms No Jakarta Residents Have Been Exposed To COVID-19 Omicron

Illustrated by DOK VOI

JAKARTA - The DKI Health Office has confirmed that there have been no findings of residents of the Capital City who were exposed to cases of COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529 or Omicron. This refers to the statement from the Bekasi Regency Health Office which was previously published on the Bekasi Regency Government official website.

Head of the DKI Health Office, Widyastuti, revealed this based on the latest clarification to the Indonesian Ministry of Health's Litbangkes on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, at 14.30.

"The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has stated that the information is not true and can be said to be a hoax. Based on the results of the clarification, no new variant of Omicron has been found in DKI Jakarta", said Widyastuti in a statement, Wednesday, December 8.

Widyastuti explained, currently, there are around 2,500 specimens examined by the DKI Provincial Government by whole genome sequencing (WGS) to detect new variants.

"40 percent of them are variants of concern and so far no Omicron variant has been found. The WGS examination itself was carried out at the Research and Development of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia with several WGS labs in the Litbangkes network in DKI Jakarta", explained Widyastuti.

However, until now, Widyastuti emphasized that the Omicron variant has not been found. To note, last week a cluster of positive cases from overseas trips was found, after which WGS examination and accurate Test, Trace, Isolation were carried out. However, the WGS result is not an Omicron.

Previously, the Bekasi Regency Government, West Java revealed that it had found four residents exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 based on the results of the whole genome sequencing (WGS) examination.

This was revealed by the Head of the Bekasi District Health Office, Sri Enny Mainiarti, on the official website of eksikab.go.id. Sri said the four Omicron cases found in Bekasi were residents of Jakarta.

"So the 4 residents who were exposed to the Omicron virus were not residents of Bekasi Regency but residents of DKI Jakarta", said Enny as quoted on the official website of the Bekasi Regency Government.

Enny said that the four residents who were exposed to the Omicron virus were discovered after traveling from abroad. They tested positive for COVID-19 of the Omicron type after examining samples at the Farmalab laboratory.

Until this afternoon, press releases on the official website of the Bekasi Regency Government can still be accessed. However, from 13:55 WIB until now, the page is no longer accessible to the public.

VOI again asked for confirmation from the Ministry of Health regarding the findings of the four Omicron cases. Apparently, the Ministry of Health denied the news that Omicron had entered Indonesia.

"It's not true (there are 4 cases of Omicron). Until now there is no Omicron", said Enny in a short message to VOI.